Netflix’s Narnia Has A New Aslan – And Christians Are Not Happy

For more than seventy years, readers of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia have understood exactly who Aslan is supposed to represent.

He is not merely a magical talking lion. He is not simply the wise ruler of a fantasy kingdom. And he is certainly not a character whose identity was left deliberately vague for future filmmakers to reinvent.

Aslan is Lewis’s unmistakably male Christ-figure.

That is why the latest revelation about Netflix’s coming Narnia adaptation is generating such a fierce reaction among Christian fans: Greta Gerwig has confirmed that Meryl Streep will voice Aslan in The Magician’s Nephew.

The rumors had circulated for more than a year. Now they are confirmed.

And the question many Christians are asking is simple: Why?

Aslan Isn’t Just Another Character

If this were merely a talking lion in an ordinary fantasy franchise, casting a woman to voice a male character might amount to little more than an unusual artistic decision.

But Narnia isn’t an ordinary fantasy franchise.

Lewis built Christianity into the architecture of his fictional universe, and Aslan stands at its center. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan gives himself willingly in the place of a condemned traitor, is killed, and rises again. In The Magician’s Nephew, he sings Narnia itself into existence.

The parallels are hardly hidden.

Aslan is the sovereign creator, sacrificial redeemer and returning king of Narnia. Lewis did not make him an abstract deity stripped of identity. He consistently presented Aslan as male.

That makes Gerwig’s casting decision more significant than simply choosing an unexpected celebrity voice.

Meryl Streep Is Not The Issue

The controversy isn’t really about whether Meryl Streep can act.

Few serious critics would question that.

Gerwig herself explained that she wanted someone with gravitas, wisdom, depth, joy and a sense of wonder. She described Streep as possessing precisely those qualities.

But that explanation conspicuously avoids the question causing the controversy.

Why cast a woman as the voice of a specifically male character who represents Jesus Christ?

Current reporting indicates Gerwig has not actually transformed Aslan into a lioness. Empire and other coverage continue referring to Aslan as “he.” In other words, this appears to be a male Aslan voiced by a woman rather than an explicitly female Aslan.

That distinction doesn’t eliminate the concern for Christians. In some ways, it sharpens it.

Because it means the filmmakers apparently understood that Aslan remains male while nevertheless deliberately choosing a female voice for him.

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